This application is based on application No. 10-13656 filed in Japan, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a digital image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a digital image forming apparatus having a functionality of saddle stitching, in which a plurality of prints generated by image forming are stacked and stitched at a center of a spread page as in the case of weekly magazines.
The term xe2x80x9cspread pagexe2x80x9d refers to the innermost sheet of saddle stitch type prints when they are gathered, and the term xe2x80x9csaddle stitch type printsxe2x80x9d refer to printed paper sheets that are produced for saddle stitching but not stitched yet.
A conventional copy machine having this type of saddle stitching functionality is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,251. With this copy machine, in order to allocate images of e.g. the third and fourth pages to a spread page of saddle stitch type prints, printing is conducted with fourth page replaced with the fifth page or with a white paper sheet inserted before the third page.
Also, the conventional copy machine is not capable of automatic creation of saddle stitch type prints having the spread page printed in a mode different from that of the remaining pages, for example, the spread page in full color and the remaining pages in monochrome. To obtain such prints with the conventional copy machine, an operator first needs to select from the documents two pages to be arranged on the front side of the spread page and another two pages to be arranged on the back side of the spread page. These four pages are then color-copied in the saddle stitching mode while the remaining pages are copied in monochrome in the saddle stitching mode. Finally, these two sets of prints are combined and bound at the center of the spread page to gather saddle stitch type prints. Thus, the saddle stitch type prints with the conventional copy machine requires an operator to carry out bothersome and complicated operations because two kinds of prints obtained by two separate copying processes should be combined.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a digital image forming apparatus that produces saddle stitch type prints having a spread page printed in a mode different from that of the remaining pages in easy operation with high reliability.
A first aspect of the present invention provides a digital image forming apparatus, comprising: image input means for inputting image data of a plurality of documents;
image signal storage means for storing the image data inputted by the image input means per page; image forming means for forming an image on a copy paper sheet based on the image data read out from the image signal storage means; a saddle stitching mode for transmitting the image data stored in the image signal storage means in sequence to the image forming means so that images are formed, corresponding to an inputted total page number of the documents, on copy paper sheets respectively in a page order indicated by a page array for saddle stitching of the copy paper sheets; and mode specification means for specifying a mode for a spread page different from a mode for the remaining pages.
The digital image forming apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention provides the mode specification means that make it possible to specify a mode for a spread page that is different from that for the remaining pages. An operator inputs the mode specification through the mode specification means and obtains the saddle stitch type prints with the spread page printed in a mode different from that of the remaining pages in easy operation with high reliability.
In one embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention, the mode for the spread page specified by the mode specification means is a color mode different from a color mode for the remaining pages.
The term xe2x80x9ccolor modexe2x80x9d is used herein in a comprehensive sense to include modes in which images are formed not only with a plurality of colors such as full colors or multi-colors, but also with a single color such as a black color.
In the digital image forming apparatus of this embodiment, the mode specified by the mode specification means for the spread page is a color mode different from modes for the remaining pages. Therefore, the digital image forming apparatus produces the saddle stitch type prints having the spread page printed in a color mode different from the color mode of the remaining pages in easy operation with high reliability.
In one embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention, the mode for the spread page specified by the mode specification means is a sheet type mode different from a sheet type mode for the remaining pages.
In the digital image forming apparatus of this embodiment, the sheet type mode specified by the mode specification means for the spread page is different from the sheet type mode specified for the remaining papers. Besides, the digital image forming apparatus produces the saddle stitch type prints having the spread page printed on a paper sheet different in type from the remaining pages in easy operation with high reliability.